<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Cuttings: WWRTD? by DameRuth</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24899227">Cuttings: WWRTD?</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/DameRuth/pseuds/DameRuth'>DameRuth</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Flowers [43]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Doctor Who (2005), Torchwood</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Character Study, Multi, Rose is so done</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 02:21:57</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>942</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24899227</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/DameRuth/pseuds/DameRuth</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The Master tries his old tricks, but Rose has other plans.  AU post-End Of Time followup to <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24899224%22">Cuttings: Vengeful God</a></p><p>[Continuing the Teaspoon imports, originally posted 2011.10.27.]</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Flowers [43]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/14017</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Cuttings: WWRTD?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Another attic fic that was mostly finished, but I was sitting on until . . . I dunno, I thought it was ready to post.  Enough of that.  :)  A partial answer to the question, "What happened when the Master woke up?" after "Vengeful God"; I fiddled for a long time with the title, and even though this contains the possible-to-misread-in-this-fandom initials "RTD," it's still the one I liked best.</p><p>  <span>Thanks to Canaan for the beta -- I fiddled a bit after she last saw this, so any errors are completely mine.</span></p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Right," Rose said with a sunny, too-wide smile as she shouldered open the sickbay door. "The Doctor says you're rehydrated and ready for some solid food, so I've brought you tea and toast." Flatware and china jingled merrily as she hefted the tray she carried, in illustration.<br/>
<br/>
No skinny pinstriped form followed her into the room, nor did the Master catch a hint of the Doctor's scent or mental signature in the hallway beyond. She was alone.<br/>
<br/>
<i>Really, this is too easy,</i> he thought.<br/>
<br/>
Rose set the tray on a nearby worktop. "How do you take your tea?" she asked, going so far as to turn partially away from the Master where he lay in in bed, still hooked to various medical monitors. Her breezy domesticity was an act; the Master had no trouble reading the tension that lay just beneath the surface.<br/>
<br/>
"Bring me a fork," he said; the words were a complete <i>non-sequitur</i> in terms of her question, but they contained the first innocuous command that, once obeyed, would begin to put her under his control. As he spoke, he forced his thoughts in her direction, willing her to yield as so many had before.<br/>
<br/>
"Say please," Rose said, without so much as looking at him while she busied herself preparing a cup and saucer.<br/>
<br/>
"<i>What?</i>" the Master asked, thrown off his stride.<br/>
<br/>
"Say 'please' and I'll bring you a fork. Otherwise, you're right out of luck." She glanced up with a small, smug smile. "The Doctor figured you'd try to control me, so he got inside my head and changed things so you can't." She tapped her temple with a finger, still smiling. "So don't waste your breath." She turned back to the tea things. "How d'you take your tea?" she repeated.<br/>
<br/>
The Master was surprised. The psychic restructuring necessary to block him out would have required both exceptional mental intimacy and the active participation of the person being altered. It was not the sort of contact he would have expected even the Doctor to engage in with a human.<br/>
<br/>
"He's teaching his pets new tricks these days," the Master said, rallying. "How very perverse of him."<br/>
<br/>
"I'm not a pet," Rose said. "D'you want some tea or not?"<br/>
<br/>
"Speaking of perverse," the Master continued, quick to press the attack when he sensed a weakness, "where's the other one? Or has Handsome Jack not woken up yet?"<br/>
<br/>
He wasn't prepared for Rose's response. She shoved violently away from the worktop, rattling the tea-tray, and spun on her heel, any and all pretense of friendliness and domesticity wiped away.<br/>
<br/>
"Right," she said, stalking up to the Master's bed. Her voice hadn't gone shrill or breathy with her anger, dropping instead to a low growl. "Let's get one thing straight: if you ever call him that again, I'm ordering -- not just giving permission, <i>ordering</i> -- the TARDIS to do exactly what she wants with you. Do you understand?"<br/>
<br/>
As Rose spoke, the TARDIS's background hum dropped by a full octave in counterpoint, the ship voicing as clear an (audible) warning as her kind could give.<br/>
<br/>
Propped up in bed as he was, still weakened from having bled away so much of his vital energy, there was nowhere for the Master to go. Cornered, he fought back with the only weapon he had left: words.<br/>
<br/>
"I don't think you've read the memo," he told her, in a voice dripping sarcasm. "I'm to be fixed and <i>saved</i>, not threatened." He pulled a sad face and blinked puppy-dog eyes at Rose. "What would the Doctor do?"  It was a line that had worked well on Martha, and he saw no reason not to repeat it.<br/>
<br/>
"Oh, no," Rose breathed, resting the palms of her hands on the edge of the mattress and leaning towards the Master until he was forced to pull away before she invaded his personal space. "This isn't about what the Doctor would do. This is about what <i>Rose Tyler </i>would do." She met his gaze fearlessly, unconcerned by any physical threat he might pose. Weak as he was, he could have snapped her neck one-handed -- but a whisper of deep-seated instinct told him that would be a <i>very</i> bad idea. He was, after all, still trapped deep in the Doctor's TARDIS and there were limits to any Time Lord's mercy, even the Doctor's.<br/>
<br/>
"D'you know," Rose continued, her voice taking on a conversational tone, "back when we faced the Daleks for the first time, when I took in the Time Vortex, he'd already rigged a delta wave? He could have destroyed the lot of them, but he couldn't bring himself to do it, even after everything they'd put him through." She pushed her face closer to the Master's, gaze never wavering, the growl creeping back into her voice. "The TARDIS and I knocked them all to dust without a second thought and I've never lost a moment's sleep over it. Think about it."<br/>
<br/>
She held her position for a moment longer, to let her words sink in, then turned abruptly away, striding back to the worktop and the tea tray.<br/>
<br/>
"How do you take your tea?" she asked, for the third time, looking at the china and silver in front of her, rather than the Time Lord at her back.<br/>
<br/>
"Milk, no sugar," he said after a pause.<br/>
<br/>
Then, grudgingly: "Please."<br/>
<br/>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span></span>
</p><p><span class="u">Disclaimer:</span>  All publicly recognizable characters and settings are the property of their respective owners.  The original characters and plot are the property of the author.  No money is being made from this work.  No copyright infringement is intended.<br/>
<br/>
This story archived at <a href="http://www.whofic.com/viewstory.php?sid=44108">http://www.whofic.com/viewstory.php?sid=44108</a></p><p>
  <span></span>
</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>